wheelock



(No Model.) 8

B. J. & J.'W. WHEELOOK.

POROUS 0UP FOR ELECTRIC BATTERIES. No. 386,569. Patented July 24, 1888.

WIT/V5 m/ VE/VTOH ziJwJnffi zm, BY 2 E E E N. PETERS, PboloLiKhugHpher.Washington, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BLOOMFIELD J. WHEELOOK AND JAMES w. WHEELOOK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

POROUS CUP FOR ELECTRIC BATTERIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 386,569, dated July 24,1888.

Application filed September 19, 1887. Serial No. 250,055.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, BLOOMFIELD J. WHEELooK and JAMES W. WHEnLooK,citizens of the United States, residing in the city, county, and Stateof New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in theProcess of Treating Porous Cups for Electric Batteries, of which thefollowing is a specification.

Our invention relates to porous cups for electric batteries. The objectis to provide a pro cess of treating such cups whereby they may bebrought to any degree of porosity required.

To this end the invention consists in treating the cup with paralline orother wax, in the manner hereinafter set forth.

The drawing represents a sectional view of a porous cup.

it is commonly known that considerable difficulty and expense hasaccompanied the use of porous cups forbattery purposes. The trouble liesprincipally in the fact that the cups are too porous and allow thefluidsto pass through too easily. .Vhen the battery is not working, the acidspass from the inside of the cup to the outside,and attacking the zincprematurely destroy it. The cup itself soon becomes brittle and wearsout. In fact, the materials,generally, of the battery are exhausted veryrapidly on account of this extreme porosity of the cup.

By our invention the cups may be brought to any desired degree ofporosity, and by so doing the above mentioned difficulties and expenseare overcome.

The process of treatment is as follows:

First. The cup is heated to about 110 Fahrenheit, or to a heatsufficient to melt paraffiue.

Second. A block of solid parafline is rubbed over the surface of thecup. The heat thereof will melt the paraffine and cause a portion of itto adhere to the cup.

Third. The jar is again heated to about the same degree and theparafliue again applied.

The heating of the cup should be slow to insure its being heatedthroughout its entire body. This is essential, because otherwise theparaffine would not penetrate the walls of (No model.)

the cup, but would remain on the outside as a coating. Such a result, insome instances, would defeat the purpose.

Each operation lowers the degree of porosity. Consequently theoperations should be repeated as many times as is necessary to bring thecup to the proper degree of porosity for the work which it is to be putto.

The heating which occurs just before the last application of paraffineshould be to a less degree than at other times, and, indeed, it insomeinstances may be entirely dispensed with. This is done in order thata very thin film of paraffine may be deposited on the outside of thecup. It is an optional matter, however, and should only be done when thebattery conditions require it.

\Ve do not confine ourselves to the particular process of applicationherein recited. The paraffine may be applied in any or the mostconvenient way-such, forinstance, as dipping the cup into meltedparaffine or applying the same with a brush; but whatever process isused the cup should first be heated entirely through to aboutthetemperaturenamedabove, in order that the parafiine may penetrate theentire body of'the cup. Neither do we confine ourselves to paraffine, asmost any wax will serve the purpose with good results.

Having described our invention, we claim The herein-described process oftreating porous cups so as to reduce to any desired extent their excessof porosity, which consists in first heating the cups to a degreesufficient to melt wax, then applying to the surface of the cupssufficient wax to reduce their porosity to a limited extent, andrepeating these operations as many times as may be necessary to bringthe cups to the desired degree of porosity.

In witness whereof we have hereunto signed our names in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

BLOOMFIELD J. \VHEELOCK. JAMES \V. WHEELOOK.

"Witnesses:

WALTER T. BLOOMFIELD, H. W. HALL.

